Dems stake out ground in AG race

But struggle for voter attention

Friday, Aug. 11, 2006

The three Democrats who are vying to succeed Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. (D) are trying to be bold as they vie for voter attention this election season.

Their success remains a giant question mark.

‘‘These candidates typically run as kick-in-the-door, [New York Attorney General] Eliot Spitzer types. But in Maryland, the attorney general is a manager of government lawyers,” said D. Bruce Poole, a Hagerstown lawyer who was once the majority leader of the House of Delegates.

‘‘Seventy percent of the job is Snoozeville,” he said. ‘‘Can you imagine the ad? ‘I can do better than anybody else in making sure all the state’s lawyers are in their place.’”

But the candidates present platforms that call for pushing the boundaries established during Curran’s 20 years in office.

‘‘They’re in say-anything mode,” said Herb Smith, political science professor at McDaniel College in Westminster. ‘‘It’s an occupational affliction of politicians in a highly competitive environment.”

Still, he calls the candidates ‘‘individuals of considerable achievement.”

Montgomery County State’s Attorney Gansler described how he wanted an audit of the Chesapeake’s rivers and streams to search for polluters.

A former assistant U.S. attorney in Washington, Gansler said he also wants to push state lawmakers to pass a federal-style racketeering law that local prosecutors can use against gangs.

Montgomery County Councilman Perez (D-Montgomery) said a Maryland attorney general could attack local land-use issues that create regional problems, citing a development near the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge in Dorchester County. The plan lacks adequate stormwater management, and therefore, the attorney general ‘‘has a dog in the fight,” Perez said in a recent meeting with newspaper editors. He also said he wanted to go after lead paint, which he considers the No. 1 environmental issue in Maryland.

Perez, a former prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice, also said he wants to establish satellite offices throughout the state.

For Simms, the attorney general can bring the U.S. attorney together with local prosecutors to lead multijurisdictional efforts against gangs or other ills.

‘‘I’m not a prosecutor, but I’m a collaborator and a convener,” Simms told the editors. Simms served as Baltimore city’s state’s attorney and served in a pair of Cabinet level positions for Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D).

With stronger primaries for U.S. Senate and Maryland comptroller, voters seem to be giving the attorney general’s race little attention. A July poll by The (Baltimore) Sun showed 65 percent of respondents undecided in the race.

Smith called the attorney general’s race a ‘‘middle tier” contest. To Poole, it is possibly less.

‘‘The race is very low on the totem pole in terms of voter interest,” Poole said. ‘‘The attorney general gets down to the political nerds and the lawyers.”

But the race has offered plenty of intrigue.

First, Gansler faced criticism from within Montgomery County that his decision to prosecute the sniper John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo was motivated as a way to get his face before the statewide media.

Then, Perez had to defend himself that he met the state constitution’s requirements for a practicing lawyer. The constitution says candidates must have practiced ‘‘in the state” for 10 years before the election. Perez had been a bar association member only since 2001, but he served as a federal prosecutor, trying cases in Maryland beginning in 1989.

And finally, Simms entered the race as a latecomer. In May, Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan selected him as his running mate in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. In June, Simms found himself as a man without a ticket when Duncan dropped out, citing clinical depression. Simms then entered the attorney general’s race, but has been hampered by a lack of cash.

Duncan’s unexpected exit caused some electoral awkwardness. Simms’ law firm of Brown, Goldstein & Levy in Baltimore had held a fund-raiser supporting Perez weeks earlier.

‘‘I told Stu I cashed the checks already,” Perez joked.

But what Simms lacks in dollars, he can make up in geography. If Gansler and Perez split the Montgomery County vote, Simms could find an advantage as the single Baltimore-area candidate.

‘‘I still think you’re going to see low voter turnout in the Democratic primary, and because it’s across the state, it really could be anybody’s game,” Poole said.

The winner of the Democratic primary will face Frederick County State’s Attorney Scott L. Rolle, a Republican who has promised to make law and order a central theme of his campaign. In 1994, former U.S. Attorney Richard Bennett used such themes to become Curran’s toughest challenger, capturing 46 percent of the vote.

Staff writer Margie Hyslop contributed to this report.